This book! It’s like a thriller! For kids! Perfect, perfect tension (and a lot of it). Zuzu’s eyes get impossibly large every time we read this. There should be more picture books that are this frightening, with such satisfying conclusions, I tell you! Lots more!

I review it today on Brain Burps.

Also today on Brain Burps: Katie interviews two authors, Jim Averbeck and Dashka Slater. It’s a good thing I sometimes let reviews write themselves for a few days in my head, since I was mentally working on reviews of both of the new books by these two (Averbeck’s Oh No, Little Dragon!and Slater’s delicious Dangerously Ever After). They are great books and I’m really looking forward to hearing this interview (and I’m glad I didn’t take the time to write and record redundant reviews).

You can find out more about the podcast here, and you can listen directly by clicking here.

New review today! Check out the Brain Burps About Books podcast to hear all about how the first time I read A Strange Place to Call Home by Marilyn Singer and Ed Young, I had no idea what to do with it. And then how I looked at how much Henry was loving it, just copied what he was doing, and realized how incredibly awesome this book is.

It profiles fourteen animals who live in harsh or odd conditions, and tells us about them through poems and torn-paper collages. It’s truly amazing, and is especially loved by my animal-loving, poetry-loving almost-9-year-old.

Today’s podcast is an interview with Jerry Craft, all about African-American culture in comic books. Check out the details here, or head right on over to iTunes to listen.